Eli Jacobs

After Eli Jacobs said last week that he was considering selling the Orioles, we asked readers if they thought he had been a good or bad owner since taking over the franchise in 1988. We received 289 responses to the question, and 137 of you commented on his ownership. As in the "It's Your Call" vote, in which 58 percent of you thought he was a "bad" owner, the comments were also fairly divided.HE'S A GOOD OWNERI feel Eli Jacobs did the best he could in the position that he was in, by allowing the people below him, like Larry Lucchino and Roland Hemond, to handle things.

One day this month, a man walked into a fast-food restaurant on Reisterstown Road, near the Plaza, and asked to speak to the manager. "I ordered a bacon-cheeseburger in here last night and it made me sick," the man said loudly."

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow should be a factor today, when the Greenspring Valley estate of Orioles owner Eli Jacobs hits the auction block at 11 a.m. The lenders hired Raymond C. Nichols, president of Atlantic Auctions, commercial auctioneers and appraisers, to conduct a public auction of the property.In case you're curious, Jacobs paid $2.25 million for the 6-acre property at 10605 Brooklawn Road in Owings Mills. It's a brick house with 4,000 square feet of living space and a 1,200-square-foot basement that sits in the midst of trees and landscaping.

AS THE new baseball season warms up, the Orioles and their new, free-spending owner, Peter G. Angelos, are bound to get a lot of attention from national sports writers. One of the first entries is from Tim Kurkjian, one-time baseball writer for The Sun who now works for Sports Illustrated. Some of his comments:"No city needs or deserves local, caring ownership of its team more than Baltimore, a neighborhood-oriented, blue-collar town whose citizens are still somewhat paranoid after losing the NFL Colts and the NBA Bullets.

As Bridgeport goes, so goes the nation.Gorby wants to be in London and not Moscow in June. He may know something.Bid no farewells to Eli Jacobs. He didn't leave.Imagine. The House of Representatives found the fat in the budget, and it wasn't the $30 billion space station.

On May 21, an Up & Down With Baltimore column on this page quoted a story in the Wall Street Journal, stating that Eli Jacobs, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, "sank very little of his own money into the $70 million purchase of the O's."Since that time the Washington Post has reported that Jacobs in fact put $35 million of his own capital into the Orioles.The Evening Sun is happy to make this clarification.

The Orioles have not prospered under the ownership of Eli Jacobs, according to a majority of callers to the SUNDIAL service of The Evening Sun. Of 376 callers, 254 said the team had not prospered under him, while 122 callers thought the team had.When asked if the team should be sold to local interests, 260 callers thought they should, while 113 callers disagreed.

Well, Doug Melvin and Frank Robinson both will have to wait because Orioles general manager Roland Hemond isn't going anywhere.Hemond, 61, who some thought would be asked to step down when his contract expired after this season, has signed a two-year contract extension with the Orioles that will keep him in the front-office picture at least through the 1993 season.Hemond confirmed today that his extension had been offered and signed and said he is grateful for the support in light of the club's disappointing showing this season.

On May 21, an Up & Down With Baltimore column on this page quoted a story in the Wall Street Journal, stating that Eli Jacobs, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, "sank very little of his own money into the $70 million purchase of the O's."Since that time the Washington Post has reported that Jacobs in fact put $35 million of his own capital into the Orioles.The Evening Sun is happy to make this clarification.LAST Wednesday, the day Queen Elizabeth visited Memorial Stadium, the Wall Street Journal weighed in with the most detailed examination so far of the complex business empire of Orioles owner Eli Jacobs.

AS THE new baseball season warms up, the Orioles and their new, free-spending owner, Peter G. Angelos, are bound to get a lot of attention from national sports writers. One of the first entries is from Tim Kurkjian, one-time baseball writer for The Sun who now works for Sports Illustrated. Some of his comments:"No city needs or deserves local, caring ownership of its team more than Baltimore, a neighborhood-oriented, blue-collar town whose citizens are still somewhat paranoid after losing the NFL Colts and the NBA Bullets.

Please, someone, sign Gregg Olson.It's getting tougher and tougher to abide some of the pleas being put forth hereabouts to bring the guy back. Not to mention the day-to-day reportage that usually includes everything about the guy up to and including his vital bodily signs.Last Friday, Olson was up in New York "humming the pea" at a snappy 65 percent of capacity for the Yankees. Yesterday, it was Atlanta and about the same velocity. Next stop, Toronto?Let's see, Olson used to send it plateward at 90 miles an hour, and 65 percent of that is 58.5 mph. Hey, what are the Yanks looking for, a right-handed Tommy John?

Ding dong, the witch is dead.Meet Peter Angelos, the fan in charge, the Anti-Eli, the Wizard of O's. No longer must Orioles fans click their heels like so many Dorothys. The new owner agrees there's no place like home.Yes, even Eli Jacobs was a hit on Day One of his ownership, but it's difficult not to get carried away right now. The text from Angelos' first news conference should be required reading for all owners.Maybe it was the cloudless sky, the soaring temperature and the stunning Camden Yards backdrop, but no asbestos lawyer ever sounded as intoxicating.

Havre de Grace. -- So once more the wheel of fortune has come to a stop, and the Baltimore Orioles have a team of new celebrity owners, selected as though by a computer to match these dizzy times.A plaintiff's lawyer whom asbestos fibers made rich. A novelist. A movie director. A tennis player. A clothing tycoon who sports a ponytail. A sports broadcaster. These all are advertised as having Maryland connections. Then there is the usual moneyed amalgam of real estate developers, lawyers and business persons, including a substantial bloc of the Cincinnati elite.

This is the honeymoon period, so we'll ask for the little things first, and Will Clark later. A local owner in Baltimore faces the same pressures as a Democrat in the White House. After so many years out of power, their constituencies demand everything at once.Peter Angelos can't help but be a hit -- he won't blackmail the state like the late Edward Bennett Williams, and he won't milk the Orioles for a $1.325 million management fee like Eli Jacobs. Indeed, after those two, he'll probably be a hero.

NEW YORK -- Now that the pinstriped egomaniacs are finished with their macho staredown, only one question remains: Can the Orioles afford a new accountant, much less a free-agent slugger?After 14 years, the club finally is returning to local ownership, but after yesterday's frantic auction in federal bankruptcy court, it might not be worth the price.The good news is, the new ownership resulted from the merger of two high-powered groups, each of which was willing to spend nearly $150 million to buy the club.

FANS"Local ownership or not, are they going to have the wherewithal to go out and get the impact players that the Orioles need? Obviously, they're not going to pull a San Diego and take the team apart, but it's going to be tough to pull off what they need to do. . . . It sounds like this afternoon was a high-stakes poker game. The art dealer from New York [Jeffrey H. Loria] bluffed them out. Edward Bennett Williams spent $13 million for the team in 1979. He must be laughing in his grave."-- Rob Mueller of Anne Arundel County"That's a remarkable price to pay, but it's got to be wonderful to own a ball team."

That $36 million bean ball Eli Jacobs fired at Warfield's magazine the other day was more than a lawsuit. It was a shrill warning cry to anybody else who wishes to examine the owner of the Baltimore Orioles: Back off, or you might get hurt.Filing a crippling lawsuit against a pipsqueak magazine is one thing. Routinely sending intimidating letters is a variation on a theme. Here are a few variations:* When the Wall Street Journal ran a piece on Jacobs four months ago -- a piece similar in theme and tone to the Warfield's piece -- the paper got an angry letter from Jacobs that Journal employees have been ordered not to discuss.

BOSTON -- The three Orioles players who were suspended for their roles in the brawl with the Seattle on Sunday all have appealed the penalties imposed by American League president Bobby Brown.Right-hander Rick Sutcliffe, reliever Alan Mills and first baseman David Segui indicated that they would appeal after they were informed of the disciplinary measures Thursday, and they made it official yesterday.Segui had to do that to be available for last night's game, because his three-game suspension was scheduled to begin.

BOSTON -- The three Orioles players who were suspended for their roles in the brawl with the Seattle on Sunday all have appealed the penalties imposed by American League president Bobby Brown.Right-hander Rick Sutcliffe, reliever Alan Mills and first baseman David Segui indicated that they would appeal after they were informed of the disciplinary measures Thursday, and they made it official yesterday.Segui had to do that to be available for last night's game, because his three-game suspension was scheduled to begin.

The sports business makes suckers of us all. Entire cities get swept up in the raw pleasures of watching the athletes at play, and thus willingly hand over blank checks on their emotions. A deal is struck: Communities offer their love, and the ballclubs return it by sticking around.Around here, we know it sometimes ends differently. Robert Irsay of Chicago killed a religious experience called the Baltimore Colts. Edward Bennett Williams of Washington, D.C., sensing everyone's post-Irsay jitters, held the city hostage long enough to get himself a free ballpark.